Brain, Mind, and Soul: Monist and Dualist Theories
Body, Soul, Mind, and Brain
The brain is essential to the human psyche, and therefore, is closely related to the mind. The question arises of whether the brain is the origin of our psyche, or if the brain is only the “vehicle” that uses the mind. Different answers have been given to this question from the point of view of traditional beliefs and science:
- The human brain is like a very powerful computer, and someday we may imitate it (artificial intelligence).
- Genetic engineering gives the opportunity
The Enlightenment: Reason, Tolerance, and Key Philosophers
The Enlightenment: An Overview
Illustration: The Enlightenment was an 18th-century philosophical movement originating in England and deepening in France. It spread throughout Europe and America, promoting the use of reason to understand the world.
Immanuel Kant and the Enlightenment
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, lived during the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, emphasized reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy.
- Kant defined the Enlightenment
Plato’s Theory of Knowledge: Ideas, Recollection, and the Cave
Plato’s Theory of Knowledge
The Platonic theory of knowledge is expressed through a series of hypotheses, doctrines, and myths developed in parallel with the theory of Ideas. The first doctrine concerns knowledge and recollection, which appears in the dialogue “Menon”.
Knowledge and Recollection in “Menon”
The dialogue presents an argument that knowledge of entirely new things (knowledge in an absolute sense) is impossible, as we either investigate what we already know or do not know what to seek.
Read MoreAristotle’s Core Concepts: Substance, Cause, Power, and Happiness
Aristotle’s Core Concepts
1. Substance
Substance is the primary way of being, referring to specific individuals existing independently and supporting accidents. There are many substances (e.g., many people), and all other ways of being are accidents of substances (quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, status, action, and passion). Substances are only specific individuals, and it is the individual to whom we attribute “being” or “substance.”
Distinguish between primary substance (specific
Read MoreNietzsche and Mill: Philosophers’ Lives, Works, and Influence
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born in Röcken in 1844 and died in Weimar in 1900. He was a German philosopher, poet, and philologist, considered one of the most influential modern thinkers of the nineteenth century.
The son of an evangelical pastor, who died five years later, Nietzsche grew up in a completely female-dominated Protestant pietism. Nietzsche first studied at boarding Pforte School, where he received his initial knowledge of classical antiquity, which would
Read MoreUnderstanding Human Rights, Citizenship, and Socialization
Human Rights and Citizenship
Institutions like the UN remind everyone that people have rights. When someone is a citizen of a state, authorities undertake to protect their rights.
Right: The ability of people to claim something.
Duty: Everything that we must do because there are objective standards that require it of us, or because it is a requirement of consciousness itself.
Subjective Right: The right of every citizen as a person.
Objective Right: People only have rights that are recognized by the
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